Gilead Profits Soar

Gilead Profits Soar

Coverage:

BiotechSF: Pricey hepatitis C drugs help Gilead eclipse big sales threshold
“Gilead Sciences Inc. earnings zoomed past second-quarter Wall Street expectations, pushed along by its two groundbreaking but controversially priced hepatitis C drugs. The Foster City-based company (NASDAQ: GILD), led by CEO John Martin, said Tuesday that it earned just short of $4.5 billion, or $2.92 per share on a diluted basis, on $8.24 million of revenue. Analysts expected $2.71 per share on $7.6 billion of revenue, according to a consensus estimate by Thomson Reuters.” Full article

FierceBiotech: The big question for Gilead: Who are you going to buy?
“Gilead CEO John Martin helped stoke all the chatter after big revenue numbers were posted following the first quarter, saying that the company is “taking suggestions” on who should be on its target list. And there has been no end of responses.” Full article

Quartz: The staggering success of Gilead’s hepatitis drugs, in one chart
“The rise of these drugs has been nothing short of meteoric. For the past two quarters, Harvoni alone has outsold AbbVie’s Humira, an anti-inflammatory drug that had been the world’s best seller for years. When you combine Sovaldi and Harvoni together, it’s not even close. They’re the top selling new drugs in the history of the industry.” Full article

Wall Street Journal: Gilead Sales Soar on Hepatitis Drugs“Analysts were expecting sales of $951 million for Sovaldi and $3.36 billion for Harvoni, according to a note by Evercore ISI analyst Mark Schoenebaum. Some health plans and drug-benefit managers have complained about the high cost of Sovaldi and Harvoni, which carry price tags of $1,000 a day or more for certain patients. Investors likely will be watching for signs of how discounts related to contracts with pharmacy-benefit managers and the number of patients being treated in the U.S. are affecting growth, according to Mr. Schoenebaum’s note.” Full article

Bloomberg: Gilead Profit Tops Estimates as Hepatitis C Drug Sales Surge
“Gilead continued to return cash to shareholders both directly and indirectly. It spent $3.9 billion to retire options that are used to convert debt into equity, according to the statement. Gilead retired 46 million of these options, known as warrants, which if exercised would have diluted the stakes of current shareholders. The company also spent $900 million to buy back 9 million of its shares and paid its first quarterly dividend of $633 million, or 43 cents a share.” Full article

CNBC: Gilead posts huge beat on earnings and revenue
“Gilead now boasts a market share of more than 90 percent of all hepatitis C patients, Paul Carter, Gilead’s executive vice president of commercial operations, said on the earnings call. He added that this market is still in its early days. “We see encouraging trends, and remain highly confident,” he said of the U.S. market for its hepatitis C treatments, later adding that the company also predicts a strong future in Europe.” Full article

The Motley Fool: Gilead Sciences Inc. Q2 Earnings: Harvoni Delivers Again
“Gilead’s shareholders enjoyed other good news. The biotech increased its full-year 2015 revenue guidance for the second time this year. In April, the company projected net product sales would be between $28 billion and $29 billion. Now, Gilead forecasts the range to be between $29 billion and $30 billion.” Full article